Second Half

Coach's Shadow Trilogy, Book 1

By: Monica DeSimone

Narrated by: Holly Holt

Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Eight years ago, Derrick Henderickson chose his career over his heart, not just hurting the woman he loved, but breaking her completely.

Zoey McEvoy was left shattered. Piece by piece, she’s rebuilt herself to become the strong, independent woman she is today.

Now, the sexy bad boy of the NFL is back. And he’s determined to reclaim her heart. Zoey barley survived losing him once; she’d be decimated if he walked away again.

With so much on the line, does Derrick stand a chance of winning the second half?

©2017 Monica DeSimone (P)2019 Monica DeSimone

Good Read

This was a good book, and I had to see where this story went. You could physically feel the connection between Zoey and Derrick. This is heartache, betrayal, soul deep love and redemption I this book. I love a good Second Chance Romance and this did not disappoint. Monica also hit on some hard issues people have to deal with in real life as well as giving us an HEA.

Love-hate sports romance

I enjoyed the audiobook overall even though there were some quality issues with the sound and narration. There are quite a few spots that 3-5 words are halted and repeated before continuing which made it a bit herky jerky. I thought the characters were well played out and had some real life issues that the author handled well.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Love It!!!

I absolutely enjoyed listening to this audiobook. It’s really good from start to finish. Really emotional, with everything that Zoey went through. I did have mix feelings for Derrick at one point, but then I was Team Derrick. Overall wonderful story!!

2nd Chance Sports Romance

This is my first book by Monica DeSimone. Second Half had emotion intrigue passion and was a good over all story. The narrator did a great job.

A good sports romance

This is a good sports/second chance romance. My only real complaint is that sometimes I couldn't stand Zoe. She seemed a little spoiled. My feelings didn't deter me from enjoying the story. Good job!

I LIKED IT!

I enjoyed it! The narration was great. The author did a good job with the character builds and plot. This was my first book by this author but definitely not my last. I look forward to reading more of her books. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Big drama and love

This book keept me from first minute. deep feelings loads of old hurt from the past. you feel the hurt in the heroines heart. I didn't want her to forgive the guy for me what he did was to bad to ever forgive.
I really didn't want to go to bed last night I wanted to know what happened next.
The story is well written and the author gets deep into the characters. you feel like you know them and want to screem and cry with them.
The narrator is good.
once or twice some repeat of the text but only few words and nothing to be annoyed about.
I can't wait to listen to next book.

3.5 Stars

Zoey suffers from depression and trust issues. She also attempted suicide. All this was the result of Derrick leaving her. I did not like Derrick, I thought he was a bully. On the other hand, Zoey’s friends were very supportive of her.

A love-hate relationship (Spoilers)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I'm in two minds about this review. Write it objectively or honestly.

We find ourselves catching up with flashbacks on a relationship that was apparently amazing, but due to a manipulative father, and what seems to be an easily controlled Derrick, is in ruins.

Derrick chose to focus on his career when he got drafted by the NFL in college and one plan that he had, because according to him Zoe was clingy, was to send an explicit video in the hopes that she would hate him and move on.

It backfired when she tried to kill herself instead. The story touches heavily on that subject and I applaud the author for being heavy on the therapy aspect as well. But there are also mention of bulimia that isn't address as strongly.

The heroine goes from a strong hate for the hero to an almost insta-love situation when she just caves to his demands to be let back into her life. Personally I probably would have set his house on fire for what he did, but that's just me.

Their relationship feels a bit toxic to me, even though they apparently end up happily ever after.

Also, what kind of father would sell his own daughter out and watch her destroy herself without confessing to his part? Only coming clean in a letter after his death. It begs the question if her ever really loved her.

The narration was good. There are some problems I picked up, i.e. some section would sound very tinny. And there was problems with the editing, quite a few sections was repeated.

Good Premise but bad execution

This book starts out eight years in the past then jumps to the present with only tell you what happened in those eight years. I couldn't get into it. I just didn't feel a connection between the characters and I think that was because of that telling of those eight years instead of showing those eight year. I constantly felt like I was missing something. I felt like Derrick was a bully who just expected Zoey to forgive him as soon as he come back in her life. I thought she was week because she let him walk all over her. I felt like her friends, family and Derrick didn't respect the fact that Zoey had a mental illness and thought that she should just get over it which was disrespectful of the author to even write in a book. Mental illness is a real thing and you can't just get over it. I believe Zoey should have been on medication for her mental illness since the counselling alone wasn't really helping her. We were told that Zoey acted bad when she was in college but we really weren't told what she did that was so bad. I really didn't buy Derrick's excuse of why he broke up with Zoey all those years ago.

I thought the narration was good but there were a couple places were a sentence was repeated probably bad editing.

I was given a copy of this book by the narrator.